Etched Black Electroless Nickel Coatings for Stray Light Control: FY20 Engineering Research Technical Investment Program

Many Lincoln Laboratory prototypes require black surface coatings to meet optical requirements. Current options necessitate tradeoffs that limit system performance or sacrifice attributes such as environmental robustness, cost, and lead time. Etched black electroless nickel (EBEN) coatings exhibit the potential to minimize these tradeoffs. The research goal was to develop a robust process for creating EBEN coatings, characterize the coatings properties, and establish a new coating option ready for use in LL prototypes. While this work demonstrated the feasibility of EBEN techniques to create deep black surfaces, the process could not be reproduced reliably and is not currently recommended for MIT LL flight programs.